Dreadnought Hospital Wards

Some more great photos from Gerald Dodd today – a selection of snaps (from so many he took) around the wards of Dreadnought Hospital in the 1960s.

Many of Gerald’s shots were candid – as porter his domain were the corridors, basements, back alleys and secret places of the hospital – but as a mad-keen photographer, he just couldn’t resist a few of the wards.

This one, for instance, of Outpatients. I confess it reminds me most of Carry on Matron or something that Leslie Phillips might be wearing a white coat in. I just love the uniforms – the starched aprons, the little white caps, the upside-down watches…

But I think what I like best about these photos is (and I see this particularly in Gerald’s other pictures of him and his mates in the hospital’s underbelly – you’ll be seeing them soon) is the sheer number of bottles of beer that keep turning up (at least I think it’s beer – could be sauce bottles or something in this pic of nurses and patients, I guess – no doubt in other photos )

Nurse! The screens!

Gerald, these pictures are great – and show a side of the NHS in the 1960s that’s beginning to be forgotten now. You and your mates must have had fun. Thanks for sharing them with us.